Coming Back to Nothing: The Hard Reality of Deportation and Return

Every year thousands of Guatemalans who left in search of work are sent back, often to the very conditions that pushed them to leave. Many spent years in the United States. Some built families there. They return to a country where the average rural wage cannot cover basic needs, and they return with little more than what they can carry.

The challenges of coming back are rarely talked about. A person who has been gone for years may have lost their land, their local network, and their footing in the community. Children who grew up speaking English land in schools that teach in Spanish. Skills learned abroad do not always translate into local jobs. And there is often a quiet stigma attached to having gone and come back, as if return were a personal failure rather than a policy outcome.

Yet returnees also bring something valuable. They come back with work experience, with exposure to new ways of running a business, and often with a fierce determination to build a life at home so they never have to leave again. What they usually lack is capital and a fair chance. A returnee with a plan and no access to credit is a wasted opportunity for an entire community.

This is personal for Blanquita. One of the foundation's own people on the ground in Guatemala returned to the country years ago and rebuilt a life there. That experience is exactly why the foundation believes in pairing training with fair lending. A returnee who gets a small, fair loan and some guidance can turn hard-won experience into a business that employs others. Return does not have to mean starting from nothing.